New to the iPhone ... We need some iHelp!

March 26, 2012 12:46 AM

I just bought a second hand iphone 3Gs for my wife due to her old phone missing some texts. What are some great tips/tricks and apps/games we should install on it?

Both of us are new to iPhone and the Apple ecosystem generally. I own a Android phone and a tablet, but my wife didn't like Android and her friends have iPhones and she likes them, so we got one.

It did have Cydia preinstalled on it, so its jailbroken already... is there anything I should look out for to uninstall or remove from the phone that might have been left there for nefarious reasons?

My wife isn't really into "always online" apps (in fact we turned off mobile internet as she is on a pre paid system here in the Philippines and data is very expensive) but it is hooked up to our wifi at home.

I already installed Skype and also XE currency exchange (how exciting!)

Thanks for your help!

posted by Admira to technology (5 answers total)

Instapaper is an absolute must. Sync it when you are on WiFi, works perfectly on the move without data.
posted by 0bvious at 3:54 AM on March 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

If the phone is jail broken with Cydia your first step should be to update to latest Cydia software if you haven't already!
posted by Under the Sea at 4:55 AM on March 26, 2012

Two handy links from taptaptap:

10 useful iPhone tips and tricks

and

10 More useful iphone tips and tricks

I use Dialvetica for quicker access to my contacts.

Appshopper (and companion app) are good for finding out about new apps, or finding out when an app on your wishlist goes on sale.

Get a notes app that syncs with Dropbox. Handy. I use Trunk Notes, but there are tons - Elements, and Notesy tend to be well-liked.

If she uses the calculator a lot, she should consider updating that. Calcbot or Soulver are both good choices. Soulver has a bit of a different approach, that she'll either love or deem unnecessary.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:14 AM on March 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

There's some GPS apps that basically install all the maps you'd need into the phones memory. Then you don't need to pull down the data from a net connection and you can do directions stuff without paying for a plan.
posted by Chekhovian at 7:51 AM on March 26, 2012

It's not likely that anything nefarious has been secretly installed on a jailbroken device, but it's possible, and the only way to get rid of all traces of the previous owner would be to restore the device — which would interfere with the unlock if it's unofficially unlocked, so you'd have to use a more laborious method to restore it. If you want to go down that path, I help maintain guides here for doing that kind of operation on jailbroken devices.

Generally I'd suggest opening up Cydia, tapping "Manage", tapping "Sources", and removing sources other than the default sources (which are BigBoss, Cydia/Telesphoreo, ModMyi, ZodTTD/MacCiti, and optionally the Dev Team Repository which is only important if the device has an unofficial unlock). Other repositories are usually (but not always) pirate repositories that host sketchy, poorly-maintained versions of packages also available from default repositories.

Then I'd recommend tapping "Manage", tapping "Packages", and checking out what's been obviously installed on the phone. (This won't display anything anyone has tried to hide, but it'll display things installed normally.) Google the names of anything that sounds unfamiliar, and I'd recommend uninstalling anything that isn't from one of those default repositories.
posted by dreamyshade at 9:43 AM on March 26, 2012